Without question. Sadly Philadelphias modern architecture is light years behind more progressive cities.

Part of it is fitting a certain design into an older city like Philly. Another part of it is just bad architects, bottom line developers, and bad design.

While there certainly are ugly modern buildings in Philly, I also think there are examples of great ones. Comcast Center, One Liberty Place, BNY Mellon center, Three Logan Square, The Residences at the Ritz, The Murano, The St. James, 1706 Rittenhouse, One Penn Square West, Jewish History Museum, Cira Centre, The Barnes Foundation, The Kimmel Center, Temple's Architecture Building, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Main Building and South Tower, The Metro Club Condos, 777 South Broad, PECO Building, Domus, The Inn at Penn, The Radian, IBX Building, PNC Building, 1600 Vine Street, The Piazza at Schmidt's and pretty much every new building in the Navy Yard from the GSK Building, Iroko Building, Tastycake Building and the new Courtyard by Marriott. These are definitely some of the more notable great architectural modern structures.

While there certainly are ugly modern buildings in Philly, I also think there are examples of great ones. Comcast Center, One Liberty Place, BNY Mellon center, Three Logan Square, The Residences at the Ritz, The Murano, The St. James, 1706 Rittenhouse, One Penn Square West, Jewish History Museum, Cira Centre, The Barnes Foundation, The Kimmel Center, Temple's Architecture Building, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Main Building and South Tower, The Metro Club Condos, 777 South Broad, PECO Building, Domus, The Inn at Penn, The Radian, IBX Building, PNC Building, 1600 Vine Street, The Piazza at Schmidt's and pretty much every new building in the Navy Yard from the GSK Building, Iroko Building, Tastycake Building and the new Courtyard by Marriott. These are definitely some of the more notable great architectural modern structures.

You act like Philadelphia is a place where modern architecture goes to die because we have a few bad buildings when that's not the case.

It's not that the majority of buildings are bad. It's that not one of the buildigns are a game-changer, or uniquely innovative.

The reason is simple: high labor and rent-seeking costs. Having bad architects is the symptom - not the disease. What ails us is high labor costs and an entrenched poliical class that forces developers to subsidize dead-weight loss with capital that would otherwise go to innovation.

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EVERY WEEKDAY, the 40 members of the Pennsylvania Ballet arrive from all over the region for a 9:30 a.m. class at the Ballet's new headquarters on North Broad Street.

The leap from the old studios on South Broad, 10 blocks south of City Hall, to what is called Avenue of the Arts North is an important part of what city officials want to see happening on North Broad, seen for years as drab and boring.

The Ballet moved into its new space in January. The building, on the former site of a garage for armored trucks, has an entrance across Wood Street from Roman Catholic High School, and is known as the Louise Reed Center for Dance.

Location was everything, said executive director Michael Scolamiero.

"It was on Broad Street, very close access to the Vine Street Expressway," he said. "Considering our goal of opening a ballet school and attracting students from New Jersey and the western suburbs, that proximity was very important."

Rehearsals were intense earlier this week as the dancers prepared for performances of "George Balanchine's The Nutcracker," beginning next Saturday.

Scolamiero said a second phase of construction is planned. It is expected to include a studio that is the same size as the Academy of Music's stage and a landscaped courtyard facing Broad Street.

It's not that the majority of buildings are bad. It's that not one of the buildigns are a game-changer, or uniquely innovative.

The reason is simple: high labor and rent-seeking costs. Having bad architects is the symptom - not the disease. What ails us is high labor costs and an entrenched poliical class that forces developers to subsidize dead-weight loss with capital that would otherwise go to innovation.

I disagree, I think the CHOP Burger center is innovative, esp. with the multi-colored facade. I think thats a building people will remember if they see it,

You act like Philadelphia is a place where modern architecture goes to die because we have a few bad buildings when that's not the case.

Your hyper-sensitivity is getting scary worrisome. Look around. When I say modern I mean today not 20-30 years ago. The only 2 office towers worth noting in the past 25 years have been Comcast Center and Cira Centre. 2 fabulous buildings but thats it.

The residential stuff for the most part, ? Pedestrian.Take a look at what is going on out there- Hong kong,Kuala Lumpur,Shanghai,London,Vancouver,Toronto,Chicago,NYC.These cities,skylines,settings are works of art.

Comparatively speaking for the most part Philadelphia is stuck in this rut of sprawling ground huggers and uninspiring mid/high rises.

Your hyper-sensitivity is getting scary worrisome. Look around. When I say modern I mean today not 20-30 years ago. The only 2 office towers worth noting in the past 25 years have been Comcast Center and Cira Centre. 2 fabulous buildings but thats it.

The residential stuff for the most part, ? Pedestrian.Take a look at what is going on out there- Hong kong,Kuala Lumpur,Shanghai,London,Vancouver,Toronto,Chicago,NYC.These cities,skylines,settings are works of art.

Comparatively speaking for the most part Philadelphia is stuck in this rut of sprawling ground huggers and uninspiring mid/high rises.

Its such a shame because ACC would have been the game changer. Even Bridgeman View Tower would have changed everything.

Pennsgrant you obviously are forgetting about 1 Liberty Place and The Bell Atlantic Tower ( I believe now 3 Logan Square). Comcast is a so-so addition to the skyline; great height and night time lights but architecturally it looks like a refrigerator. However, I will have to agree with you on the point that The architecture going up in center city has a lot to be improved on. Too many developers take the cheap way out or the building developers have a limited budget for creating inspiring architecture. I also think too many people on here are hyper-sensitive or they are on a power trip; because they can delete your posting if you disagree with them.

What are you talking about? What an unnecessary comment. I think my response was pretty tame. I was just listing modern buildings in Philly that I think are great designs. Do you always have to complain about everything? Either a building isn't tall enough for you or it's not good looking enough.

And "Modern Architecture" includes everything since the turn of the 20th Century. If you are limiting to the design of buildings recently, then I think the turn you are looking for is Neomodern Architecture or Contemporary Modern Architecture.

What are you talking about? What an unnecessary comment. I think my response was pretty tame. I was just listing modern buildings in Philly that I think are great designs. Do you always have to complain about everything? Either a building isn't tall enough for you or it's not good looking enough.

First let me say you do a great job on this forum and others bringing a lot of valuable information. That being said I don't complain about everything but you do seem to fly off the handle whenever someone says a bad thing regarding Philadlephia. Relax dude you take this stuff way too seriously. It's Ok if someone has a different viewpoint even if it happens to disparage Philadelphia at times

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Originally Posted by summersm343

Also, you are forgetting that Philadelphia does not have the same demand of the massive World Cities that you listed.

And Philadelphia may never come close to being a massive world city if it doesn't raise its standards a bit.

Not cherry picking here and Im generally from the school of any development is good development, but heres a photo of the back of 1900 Arch which makes me say WTFrack ? Although the street façade seems to be OK I will post a few photos later on when I get the time. lots of windows thank goodness because that grey/blue cladding is god awful.

First let me say you do a great job on this forum and others bringing a lot of valuable information. That being said I don't complain about everything but you do seem to fly off the handle whenever someone says a bad thing regarding Philadlephia. Relax dude you take this stuff way too seriously. It's Ok if someone has a different viewpoint even if it happens to disparage Philadelphia at times

Thanks... but I'm just tired of Philadelphia getting constantly thrown under the bus when it comes to EVERYTHING. Did you watch the Eagles game today? The announcers were so clearly biased against Philly it was getting annoying. They named the top play of the game at halftime the ONLY Cardinals touchdown when it was nothing special and the Eagles scored two touchdowns and Riley Cooper had a phenomenal one handed catch. WTF? I'm certainly not the only thing who notices these things. Philly is a city of underdogs and it constantly gets shit on.

Quote:

And Philadelphia may never come close to being a massive world city if it doesn't raise its standards a bit.

Not cherry picking here and Im generally from the school of any development is good development, but heres a photo of the back of 1900 Arch which makes me say WTFrack ? Although the street façade seems to be OK I will post a few photos later on when I get the time. lots of windows thank goodness because that grey/blue cladding is god awful.

I agree that 1900 Arch, Southstar Lofts and the Home2Suites facades are terrible, but these are three buildings. The other buildings going up are good or great designs. Sure nothing "game changing" like you would like but there is a lot of good architecture going up in the city too.

You need to look at everything from both ways. These are only three buildings and they can always get a recladding some years down the road.

Those cities also have a quantity drives quality thing going on. If you build enough high-rises you are bound to get some good ones especially with a lot of money floating around. However those cities have also seen a bunch of really bland buildings that look a lot like 2116 Chestnut.

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Philadelphia used to be one of those cities you guys speak about. Center of the world type.And they say history repeats it's self so I think we took a turn for the better recently. I can't understand why we have this feeling of being underdogs and so forth because,from my travels in the states we are doing very well,its my personal opinion. Compared to cities that we are compared to.Our skyline is definitely in the top five nationally and if it wasn't for the stupid gentlemens agreement I think we would have been top 3 if we are not now? Also I loved how imposing the liberties buildings where per Comcast. And summer I agree with you about the national media about many comments that they make, constantly putting Philly down. One more thing they never seem to be able to catch the skyline views at a good angle which just makes me so mad, and so does not compliment our city at all.I have ten different vantage points that actually have amazing skyline viwes that are breathtaking. Which in turn would make it look like somewhere I would like to visit if I was watching it on tv. So if anyone knows where they set up there cameras for these games or if anyone local directs the blimp they need some outside and local input. Is what I am saying!!

I defiantly do believe that the gentleman's agreement is the reason why the skyline is so good looking. Imagine if they were to build office buildings as high as 1 lib, or 2. We would of had boxes. And plus it allowed some creativity with the arrangement, in that diagonal setup.